A Huddersfield dog groomer is reeling after her business rates skyrocketed from £700 to £23,000 a year - a rise of more than three THOUSAND per cent.

Now Alison Rogers says she is looking at the collapse of the award-winning business she has run since she was a teenager.

Struggling to hold back tears she said: “I am going to go bankrupt. It’s 25 years down the drain.”

Miss Rogers, who runs Alice in Groomingland in the town centre, says she is caught between the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which assessed her salon in Beast Market, and Kirklees Council, which is pursuing her for payment.

Following court action she has been ordered to pay up by magistrates. She has also been threatened with the bailiffs.

The amount leaving her bank account every month could be more than £2,000.

“I can’t alter the building structurally because it’s listed. Also, I can’t cover up the windows. That’s in my lease.

“I have asked why this has happened but I haven’t had any answers all the way through. The council passes the buck to the VOA and they pass it back.”

It’s just two years since the parlour was officially opened by former Mayor of Kirklees Clr Jim Dodds following a £15,000 renovation of the building.

At the time Miss Rogers, who was relocating her business to Huddersfield from Holmfirth, queried how much she could expect to pay.

She said council officers told her she would be exempt due to Small Business Relief, and would pay just £700.

She later received a letter from Kirklees Council informing her that the rateable value was actually £8,000.

Alison Rogers's dog grooming business, Alice in Groomingland on Beast Market, is under threat because of a huge rates bill (Image: Huddersfield Examiner)

Following re-assessment by the Valuation Office Agency the rateable value soared to £23,000. Her business rates are now more than her rent.

She said the debt has been backdated to 2010.

She described the demand as “crippling” and said it would mean the end of her business, which she has run since the age of 19.

Miss Rogers has been in dispute with the council for more than 18 months and is currently making monthly payments to cover arrears.

She said: “I feel like I am being targeted. I keep wondering if they want me out so they can put someone else in.

“They keep pushing it. There seems to be something else going on and I don’t understand what it is.

“This is about them getting it wrong.

"I feel victimised and bullied - as if I’m being targeted. Nobody wants to listen.”

Alice in Groomingland on Beast Market (Image: Huddersfield Examiner)

A spokesman for Kirklees Council said: “The council is required to issue and collect business rate bills in accordance with the valuations it is provided with by the government agency, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

“Business rate payers may contact the VOA if they have queries regarding the valuation set on their business.

“We always try and work sympathetically with businesses and give other options for making appropriate arrangements to avoid formal recovery action, and can confirm that we have had several discussions with representatives of the company.

“In all cases we give the same opportunities, instead of taking formal recovery action, to make an arrangement which ensures that at the very least, current business rate charges are being paid, and some headway into clearing arrears are achieved.

“Legal proceedings are only begun when other avenues have been exhausted, as we are ultimately required to secure any unpaid debt through the courts. This applies equally to all businesses who pay business rates.

“Legal proceedings can be stopped if an acceptable payment arrangement can be agreed, and we will continue to work with the business or their representatives in the meantime if such an agreement can be reached.”